The “Sustainable 100”: a good initiative
9 maart 2009
I believe this initiative is to be applauded. It is an effective and clear way of promoting sustainable development and the people who are “the movers and shakers” in this area.
The methodology does seem to be robust. However, this does not mean that there are no questions to be asked. For example: it strikes me that both the Ministries of Environment and Development Aid are represented (Koenders position 16, Cramer 35), whereas Economical Affairs is absent. In the light of initiatives of initiatives of this Ministry such as research on chain responsibility (SER), sustainability in corporate governance and even the transparency benchmark this seems to be odd. The number of business representatives in the list is significant and seems to support my opinion that business has a crucial role to play in a transition towards sustainability. Sometimes business is represented by their CEO (Bakker TNT, 6, Wijers AkzoNobel 14) but sometimes by the sustainability person (De Bruin Philips, 59). Is this consistent? The list also emphasises that sustainability is a broad area that invites for many different and sometimes contrary points of view. Professor Rabbinge (20) considers organic food (biologisch voedsel) a luxury that the West thinks it can afford. This is an opinion that others in the list may not agree with. The number one on the list, Pieter Winsemius, is not too happy to be called the “Dutch Al Gore”. He states that the message of Gore is strong, but it there is room for comments too. So Gore is not everyone’s icon.
In the light of the contrary views it strikes me a bit that in the introduction to the ranking the famous Dutch “Poldermodel” is seen as an obstacle. It is stated that this model results in lower targets, or even a delay of target setting. This may be true on the one hand, but in an area in which contrary views can (and must!) exist, the model also prevents turning a blind eye to the downsides of proposals and solutions. This is some guarantee for limiting investments of good money in bad projects. Even now debate in sustainable development remains crucial. Beware for people who believe they know it all, also in the area of sustainability. The list adds to transparency, which is helpful. It is an smart innovation in the
debate about sustainability. Thanks for the initiative.
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